There are too many TV recap sites that are way better at what they do, so I'm not going to.
These are merely my thoughts and comments about what I've seen and heard - too long for tweets or FB statuses, but probably too short for decent length blog posts.

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Saturday, August 13, 2016

In all my years following the comings and goings on Criminal Minds, the news about Thomas Gibson's dismissal from the show after an "on set altercation" was (you have to admit) more mind blowing than when they announced Shemar Moore was leaving, mostly because his character Hotch has been the backbone of the BAU for the entire run of the show. At this point the only OG cast members left are Matthew Grey Gubler... and maybe Kirsten Vangsness.

Okay, he's had some prior incidents which all lead to what some would say was that last straw for the production. Also, I read someplace that the guy was kicked in the shin - if I knew there was a "three strikes" rule on the show, I would've gone all out and kicked the guy in the balls, but that's just me. We don't know what actually happened and we probably never will.

With him gone, the show saved the money that would be his salary (which I imagine is pretty significant, given his OG cast member status) and bring in someone younger and/or cheaper.

With a departure as abrupt as this, I can't wait to see how they write themselves out of this Hotch-sized hole: I don't think they can use "Hotch finally retired" as a write-out, I think they would have to kill him off at this point. Or maybe they could say Hotch got fired because of what happened in the last season, but the team still has to carry on.

I don't know who can step in as BAU unit chief... I suppose Rossi could, but I don't think that was why he came back to the BAU in the first place.

I'm with the rest of the fandom - here's to the beginning of the end of Criminal Minds.